Ron Tisue: Operation Deep Freeze IV, Antarctica 1958–59

These photographs of Antarctica, at once biographical and historical, are from Ron Tisue’s time “on the ice” during the International Geophysical Year Operation Deepfreeze IV. In 1958, Tisue, then stationed in Phoenix, AZ, saw a post calling for volunteers to “winter over” in Antarctica and signed up. The landscape first struck him as stark, barren, bitterly cold, and empty. His job was to track weather, study clouds, release Hydrogen balloons, and take readings every 3 hours—12 hours on and 12 hours off. 

Tisue traveled with a Brownie camera, a wind-up Brownie movie camera, and a Wollensack tape recorder with classical music reels. As Tisue describes, “I painted with my camera—shapes, lines, angles inspired me. I had to learn how to get good photos. I created a visual record of everything. I wanted to document everything. I needed to document everything.” The experience was life-altering: Tisue later went to art school on the GI Bill, leading to a career as an art educator and sculptor, and to a lifetime of building and transforming historic spaces.